Francis Duggan

No Less Mortals Than I - Poem by Francis Duggan

I believe in equality that none is born a foolThough I was dunce of the classroom in Millstreet Primary SchoolBut dunce is a put down word used by ignoramus kindAnd in every town and village such people you will findFor some of the boys I went to school with the funeral bell has tolledAnd some of them grandparents and all like me are getting oldThe past has gone forever though the memories remainAnd often in my flights of fancy I'm in the schoolyard againPlaying football in the lunch break the memories linger onOf when I was a schoolboy in days that are long goneThe dunce of the school classroom as I can well recallNot to me that it does matter one little bit at allThe bright boys of my classroom no less mortal than ISince it is one known fact of life that we all are born to die.